My 27 Feet

Monday, July 30, 2012

Staycationing

My family went to Pennsylvania this weekend for a family reunion, and since neither I was pretty sure neither me or my oldish truck could handle two four-hour drives in one weekend, I was left home with the dog, the cat, six guinea chicks, three guinea hens, and the tank of tilapia (i.e. fish) in the basement.

The bad news was... yeah. The good news was that since I was not - I repeat, not! - staying alone in the huge creepy house by myself, Chris and Natalie let me stay overnights with them this weekend. Proving once again that they are the ultimate aunt and uncle. I've lost track of the number of times I've crashed with them this summer; this is definitely not the first time I've thanked God for them!!! :)

But before my family left, Maggie and I went out on a dinner/shopping night. I was in the mood for something a little special, so we headed over to Outback so I could introduce Maggie to the wonder that is their Seared Ahi Tuna. They didn't have any allergy info online, so once we were seated we asked about it, and the manager ended up coming over and answering all our questions, giving us some tips, explaining how things could be altered, etc. Took great care of us! He even checked on us periodically through the meal to make sure everything was good.

We ended up getting an appetizer of the tuna, then splitting the seasonal special - steak and snowcrab - and a side salad for each of us (I'm ridiculously in love with their blue cheese wedge salad). Even though it was only one entree between us it was way, way too much food, but it was so, so good. :) The only sad thing was that because their drinks are "pre-batched" (?) they couldn't get me a virgin mojito, which was too bad because they looked so good.

Friday I had a babysitting job that took up most of the afternoon, so that morning and evening I was desperate to get a bunch of stuff knocked off of my infamous to do list. I got the truck cleaned out, put aside the stuff that's headed for the tailor/cobbler, cleaned my room so I could unpack in it, and ran some errands that had been long neglected. Then I headed over to Abby's house, where we played alphabet tracing games on my tablet and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

On Saturday, my friend Becka came over to help me unpack stuff into my new room. She helped me lug 8+ bins, boxes, and totes full of books from the basement up two flights of stairs to my room, then organized and shelved them all while I worked on unpacking clothes, shoes, etc, and got that all settled. We got most of it done in less than four hours, which absolutely amazed me, and it feels so good to have my stuff around me again. :) Definitely still have some stuff to unpack, and some furniture to find - I'm on the hunt for a leather storage bench and some matching nightstands - but it's definitely getting there.

We picked up Abby on our way to dinner so that Chris and Natalie could go see The Dark Knight Rises, and after a yummy dinner at Olive Garden, Abby and I headed up to my grandparent's house to go swimming. She's starting to swim like a fish after a week of swim lessons - I can't wait to see this next week! We chatted with Meemaw and Grandad for a little bit, then on the way home we stopped at the new frozen yogurt shop to get a treat!

Our new froyo shop!

Cooling off with a cool treat after a very hot day :)

Abby's ice cream - chocolate with some gummy candies. She keeps it simple.

We came home and crashed on the couch to watch Open Season 3, then on my bed to play more tracing games on my tablet til Mommy and Daddy got home. I think we were both worn out from all the fun cuz as soon as they got home we went to bed! :)

This morning we skipped church in favor of spending time together as a family (lol) and headed up to my grandparent's house to go swimming with my grandma. :) After our swim, I picked up take-out for lunch (dragon wings - yum!) and came home to check on the animals.

This was the point when I realized that even though his food was gone, I hadn't laid eyes on the cat since the family had left, so I went on a cat hunt which proved entirely unfruitful. Feeling uneasy about this, I went to check on the dog, who was chilling out in front of his fan, and then the fish, which is when I noticed that a) all the fish were hanging out on top of the tank, b) all the snails (which are in the tank to keep it clean) were abandoning ship and climbing up the sides as fast as they could, and c) there was a dead fish floating around on top. I called Allen to let him know the situation, and went back to hunting the cat down. No cat. By now I was pretty sure I had lost the cat and killed the fish, though I couldn't figure out how (I followed the instructions to the letter!).

Eventually my family came home, and my sister (the cat's mommy) had barely set foot on the ground before the "lost" cat was in her arms, thoroughly proud of himself for scaring me half to death.

The fish weren't so lucky. Although it turns out I had nothing to do with it, Allen had in fact lost nine fish :( because apparently the tank had overflowed at some point. Fortunately, now the fish are moved out into an exterior stock tank so our house smells less fishy.

All in all, I had really been dreading the weekend all alone, but it turned out to be a productive and relaxing time, sort of like my own mini staycation. :)

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I am the one who believes in signs from the universe, in grace and coffee and sunshine. I am the one who believes in small everyday magic, and that a cup of coffee, a nap, and hot showers are secret reset buttons for bad days. I am the one who believes in instant connections and unlikely friendships.